Fighters comprise almost half death toll, Israel says
Netanyahu insists ratio of civilians to combatants killed is about one to one
Israel’s prime minister has said that almost half of those killed in the Gaza war are Hamas fighters, playing down a civilian toll that has sparked global outrage.
Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the overall toll is lower than that given by authorities in the Palestinian territory.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza yesterday, at least 35,173 Palestinians have been killed in the territory during more than seven months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
But Netanyahu suggested in an interview on the “Call Me Back” podcast conducted on Sunday that the death toll in Gaza was actually around 30,000 and that Hamas fighters accounted for nearly half of that toll.
Gaza authorities do not provide an overview of the number of Palestinian militants killed, but have repeatedly said that a large majority of those killed in the war have been women and children.
The United Nations and a long line of countries have voiced alarm at the number of civilian deaths.
United Nations rights chief Volker Turk warned in a statement last month that children especially were “disproportionately paying the ultimate price in this war”.
But Netanyahu insisted to podcaster Dan Senor that Israel had “been able to keep the ratio of civilians to combatants killed … [to] a ratio of about one to one”.
“Fourteen thousand have been killed, combatants, and probably around 16,000 civilians have been killed,” he said.
He gave similar figures in March during an interview with Politico, at a time when Gaza’s health ministry was reporting a toll of at least 31,045.
Netanyahu said at the time that the figure included 13,000 militants and the number of civilians was “far less than” 20,000.
His latest comment comes at a time of intensified pressure from Israel’s chief military supplier, the United States, over the Palestinian toll from the war.
Washington paused delivery of 3,500 bombs, and US President Joe Biden warned he would stop supplying artillery shells and other weapons if Israel carries out a fullscale invasion of Rafah.
A US State Department report on Friday said it was “reasonable to assess” that Israel has used American arms in ways inconsistent with standards on humanitarian rights but that the United States could not reach “conclusive findings”.
Biden, who is running for re-election this year, has faced heavy criticism from his own supporters for his support of Israel. Some of those critics have accused Israel of committing genocide, a claim dismissed by the White House and Israel.
“We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. We have been firmly on record rejecting that proposition,” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Monday.
Sullivan said the US had also presented its position on this issue in writing and in detail before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Egypt, a key US ally, said it would join South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ, which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
Israel argues it invoked the right to self defence after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
[We have] been able to keep the ratio of civilians to combatants killed … [to] a ratio of about one to one
ISRAEL’S PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU DISPUTES CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL FIGURES WIDELY QUOTED FROM THE GAZA WAR AND INSISTS HALF OF THOSE KILLED HAVE BEEN HAMAS FIGHTERS